29.9.2023
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 349/61
1.5.
The EESC calls on the Commission to develop common guidelines to monitor access to quality and affordable WSS (4) and their spatial, social and gender disparities at Member State and EU level, as well as to map the state of play and regularly monitor developments.
Data should be reliable, valid and publicly available.
This is also necessary in order to comply with Article 16(a) of Directive (EU) 2020/2184 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020 on the quality of water intended for human consumption (5) (called hereafter the Drinking Water Directive (DWD)), and the EESC expects that the European Commission proposal for the Recast of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD) (6), introducing an Article 19 on Access to Sanitation, will be adopted.
1.6.
The EESC proposes to the Commission that the forthcoming review of the DWD should include the guarantee of universal access to WSS, as set out in UN SDG 6.
The EESC advises the Commission to adopt common guidelines for the pricing of water and sanitation, within which the Member States can develop their context-dependent regulatory frameworks.
Such guidelines should respect the human right to water and the principle of non-degradation, similar to that recommended by the UN on human rights and access to drinking water and sanitation.
1.7.
The EESC emphasises that paying for WSS services should not compromise the fulfilment of other social needs.
Therefore, the EESC calls on the Commission to make an overview of measures applied in all Member States concerning affordability and specifically on vulnerable consumers.
On the basis of this overview, we call on the Commission to develop common guidelines for Member States to identify households with affordability problems, and more specifically vulnerable consumers, and measures to address them.
Such guidelines should ensure that no users in a situation of vulnerability have their water supply disconnected (7).
Measures should be based on a holistic view of affected households’ situations and should apply social policy instruments, housing policy measures, and specific measures concerning WSS services in a context-specific manner.
The principle of solidarity should be taken into account in financing such measures; in addition to public funding, innovative forms of funding should be explored, e.g. establishing dedicated funds incorporated in water bills.
1.8.
The EESC recommends that the EU adopt and strengthen regulatory frameworks on water concession agreements to manage water as a public good rather than as a commodity that can be traded.
Such regulatory frameworks should:
(a) be aligned with human rights;
(b) promote sustainability of aquatic ecosystems;
(c) be established and implemented in a transparent manner with public participation;
(d) complement the framework of concession rights with public institutions to recover water use rights in exchange for fair compensation and reallocate them during drought crises to users in emergency situations.
1.9.
The EESC notes that there is a fundamental difference between public and private water management and good and bad examples can be found in both.
However, private management, due to its focus on profit, may have difficulty meeting the fundamental requirement of universality of service, i.e. serving 100 % of the population.
The EESC believes that public water management is in a better position to guarantee universal access to water and sewage systems at a fair price and with adequate quality standards and the restoration and protection of ecosystems.
(4) (5) (6) (7)
Complementing the monitoring set in the Drinking Water Directive (Directive (EU) 2020/2184).
OJ L 435, 23.12.2020, p. 1.
‘Identify people without access, or with limited access, to water intended for human consumption, including vulnerable and marginalised groups, and reasons for such lack of access’, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/ PDF/?uri=CELEX:32020L2184.
Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning urban wastewater treatment COM(2022) 541 final, 2022/0345 (COD).
See also: https://www.aquapublica.eu/article/news/access-water-and-sanitation-must-be-priority-commission-action-planimplement-pillar.